China Goes Native for New Operating System::

Rule number one for the technology industry in China: if the world is doing something, a Chinese company must do it.
That trend was on full display this week as the China Academy of Sciences and Liantong Network Communication Technology announced a new locally developed operating system.
Ostensibly created to serve as a competitor to foreign platforms like Google'sGOOG -0.49% Android and Apple'sAAPL -2.46% iOS which currently dominate the market, the new operating system is creatively named China Operating System or COS for short.
In recent decades, the Chinese government has spent billions of dollars to ensure that in the high-tech industry the country has homegrown options to match foreign competitors. Though the country lags in many spaces, it has local champions in industries as diverse as semiconductors, telecom equipment, chip design, social media and even online gaming.
But the smartphone operating system has quietly eluded the government. Android and iOS have come to control more than 90% of the China market in 2013, according to data from research firm IDC.
In March last year, the China Academy of Telecommunication Research, which is associated with China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology hit out at Android, arguing that China is too reliant on the platform. The report also accused Google of using its dominance to discriminate against local hardware manufacturers. Google has previously denied those allegations.The new platform, which is based on Linux and can run applications built for HTML 5, works for smartphones and other devices, according to Penny Huang, a spokeswoman for telecom firm Liantong. It has been tested on a range of devices, according to Huang, who would not elaborate on which manufacturers might bring a phone to market with the operating system.
According to a person familiar with the matter, HTC engineers were heavily involved in the development of the software, but Huang said that the project was the product of exclusive cooperation between Liantong and the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The Wall Street Journal first reported in August that HTC was developing an operating system for Chinese consumers.
“HTC remains focused on working with its current OS partners and we do not comment on speculation regarding other operating systems,” an HTC spokeswoman said Friday.
The dominance of Android and iOS, combined with the millions of applications that have been developed for the two operating systems, means that COS, even if technically comparable to its rivals, is likely to have a hard time competing. Still, some analysts say that China’s state-owned providers, as well as smartphone makers, might get behind the operating system as a sign of support for the government initiative.
Huang said the company’s goal is “to offer another choice to consumers and developers.”
She added that by having only one application store it will also enable the platform to offer a more secure experience that avoids the software piracy rampant on the Chinese Internet.

Apple marketing chief Schiller unfollows Nest & Tony Fadell on Twitter following Google deal::

Only a few days after “father of the iPod” Tony Fadell agreed to sell thermostat and smoke detector maker Nest to Google for north of three billion dollars, Apple senior vice president (and former Fadell colleague) Phil Schiller has unfollowed the Nest CEO and the Nest company on Twitter.

Here’s Schiller’s following list from a recent cache:

Apple CEO Tim Cook Appears at China Mobile iPhone Kickoff::

iPhone sales have begun at China Mobile January 17th. The world’s largest carrier made a deal with Apple back in December 2013 to carry the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c on their wireless network.

9to5Mac:

To celebrate January 17th  launch, Cook and China Mobile Chairman Xi Guohua attended the opening at a China Mobile store. In celebration, Cook and the China Mobile executive offered autographed iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c units to the first customers to enter the store.

Cook also consented to a few questions and made a statement at a store opening.

Bloomberg reports that Cook said, “today is just the beginning of China Mobile and Apple coming together to deliver the best experience in the world.” When asked is a bigger-screened version of the iPhone was in the cards, Cook surprised no one by answering, “We never talk about future things. We have great things we are working on but we want to keep them secret. That way you will be so much happier when you see it.”

Why Did Google Buy Nest? Why Did Nest Go With Google?

The word is out, Google has bought connected thermostat and smoke detector maker Nest for $3.2 billion in cash. But why did Google want Nest? And why did Nest choose to go with Google instead of, say… Apple?

Why Google Bought Nest

In case you were unaware, Nest is a company whose aim is to make household objects smarter via advanced design and internet-connected features. Currently, it is best known for its Nest Thermostat ($249), a smart home thermostat controlled by your mobile device, and the Nest Protect ($129), a smoke and carbon-monoxide detector.

The company was founded in part by CEO Tony Fadell, a former Apple employee who is known as “The Father of the iPod.”

Google’s acquisition of Nest immediately puts Google in first-place in the race for in-home smart devices and appliances. While Nest has never released sales numbers, some estimates say the company is shipping upwards of 50,000 smart devices a month. I’m thinking any other company in the same marketplace would be hard pressed to match numbers like those.

Mashable humorously echoes the thoughts of many:

Will you have to log into Google+ to activate your smoke alarm? Will audio versions of Google’s paid search advertisements blare throughout your home via the speaker of your carbon-monoxide detector?

While Google’s announcement of the deal says that Nest will continue to operate as a separate and distinct entity, with Fadell still leading the way, it is still not hard to imagine how Google could use the Nest technology in the future. Despite any privacy implications – and there would be more than a few – Google’s powerful data crunching capabilities combined with Nest technologies could breed a new generation of smart home appliances that could be just what the market has been waiting for.

Why Nest Picked Google as a Partner

Well, besides the logical reason, “because they asked,” there are numerous attractive qualities Google holds for a company like Nest.

In an interview with GigaOM’s Om Malik, Nest co-founder Fadell noted how he has been wanting to refocus on designing product experiences instead of spending his time on scaling and infrastructure — something Google is very good at.

Tony Fadell:

I was spending nearly ninety percent of my time on building the infrastructure of the company and I wasn’t able to spend enough time and cycles on what I love doing: products and creating differentiated experiences for our customers. That is where my love is and Google offered to let us focus on that, but with scale that will help bring our horizon closer to us, faster. Google offers to bring that scale to us. For me, ultimately building great products is key.

Fadell went on to explain that while the Nest lineup of products has done quite well in the U.S. and Canada, the company needs to expand to other markets. Google can help with that.

Fadell says Nest will be increasing its marketing spending to get more people to use Nest products. He thinks the deal with Google will prime other companies to build around the “internet of things,” bringing previously ignored products to the limelight.

Who knows if Nest ever had talks with Apple for a deal similar to the one with Google. Apple certainly has the cash at hand to easily pull off such a deal. Nest’s co-founder Tony Fadell worked for the Cupertino firm. And, Apple sells Nest thermostats and smoke + carbon monoxide detectors in its stores and online. Why didn’t these two companies make a deal?

Turns out the relationship between Apple and Fadell may have been strained for quite awhile.

ITProPortal, via MacDailyNews writes about Fadell’s exit from Apple:

“Tony got canned,” Leander Kanhey writes in his new book, Jony Ive: The genius behind Apple’s greatest products. “He was paid off with his salary for a number of years plus so many millions to leave. Tony was canned because he was battling with Jony.”

Kanhey’s book suggest that Fadell and Apple parted on less than good terms. It seems that Fadell had originally conducted talks with Google when he decided to found Nest.

“This decision wasn’t made on a whim – Google has been in the mix in some way or another for about three years of our almost four-year history,” Fadell said in a blogpost about the deal. “In fact, my first meeting with Google as a Nester was before we’d launched.”

Google’s support and interest from the beginning may have meant it was the only feasible partner in Fadell’s view of things.

It will be interesting to sit back and watch what technology sprouts form the union of Nest and Google.

Will Google completely swallow the tech startup, assimilating its technology into Google branded products, or will we see Nest stand on its own as a leading brand in home automation tech?

What’s your opinion reader? We’d love it if you’d share your thoughts with us in the comments section below.

Rumor: Apple to Bring Back 8GB iPhone 4 to Shore Up Sagging India Sales

Apple is apparently set to bring back an old favorite from yesteryear to customers in India. The company is reportedly preparing to bring back the 8GB iPhone 4 exclusively in the Indian market.

AppleInsider:

Citing unnamed sources at four of Apple’s top trade partners in the region, The Economic Times reports the company will soon start sales of the 8GB iPhone 4 in its push for marketshare.

The report claims the iPhone 4 will be priced at roughly 15,000 rupees, or $243, when buybacks and equated monthly installment (EMI) plans are factored in. That would come out to a savings of 11,500 rupees, or $187 over the device’s original retail price three year ago.

One strike against such a move would be the supply of the iPhone 4 itself. Apple halted production of the iPhone 4 last fall, and moved the iPhone 4S into the entry-level slot. Sources say the company will attempt to draw upon unsold inventory of the iPhone 4 from around the world.

Apple’s EMI strategy, which dulls the pain of the cost of the devices by spreading out payments over multiple months, has proven popular in the past, with iPhone sales rising 400% over a three-month period in 2013 after the debut of such a plan.

No official announcement has been made as to when sales of the iPhone 4 will begin in India.